AHA

>> Sunday, July 10, 2011

After realizing I only have one barely full keg in my kegerator and my supply of bottled homebrew is dwindling, I figured it'd be a good idea to brew today. The last two brews were hefe's so it's time to brew something else...and wouldn't you know it, the July/August issue of Zymurgy has a section on best beers in America and includes a few recipes. So today I'm brewing a version based on Bell's Two Hearted Ale. It's based on this because I had to make some substitutions at my LHBS, so I'm calling it the Heartless Bastard IPA in honor of one of my favorite bands, The Heartless Bastards. This is an American IPA and here's the recipe as I made it:

10 pounds Rahr 2 row

2.83 pounds Maris Otter 2 row

8 oz Dingemans Cara 45

1.2 oz Centennial 45 min

1.2 oz Centennial 30 min

3.5 oz Centennial (dry hop)

White Labs WPL001 California Ale

Mash with 4.5 gallons at 150 F for 45 mins. Raise to 170 F for 10 minutes. Sparge at 175. Ferment warm. Dry hop after primary is complete (about 1 week). Hold warm for another week. Rack to secondary and cold crash for a week before bottling/kegging.

Estimated O.G. 1.063 (15.5 Plato)

Estimated F.G 1.012 (3.0 Plato)

Brewing Notes:
My water is very hard so in order to avoid harsh bitterness sometimes associated with hard water and a lot of hops, I used 2 gallons of RO water in the mash and another 2 gallons in the sparge water. Pre-boil gravity is about 13.6 P. Post-boil gravity was 16 P (most likely due to high evaporation rate). As usual, I used my stirplate to get the starter going 48 hours ahead of time.